In the current global economy, manufacturers can no longer rely on traditional product-focused business models. An increasing number of companies are therefore shifting from selling products to providing solutions to gain competitive advantage and increase revenues, margins, customer satisfaction, and retention. In recent years, this transformation has also strongly affected traditionally product-centric sectors, such as machinery, where customers increasingly demand a shift to more customised, sustainable and flexible business models instead of one-off payments, leading companies to adopt innovative business models. Smart Connected Products and new digital technologies such as cloud computing, big data analytics, AI and blockchain, are seen as both critical challenges and enablers of this transformation. In fact, these technologies are exploited to enforce the connections with the customer installed base, monitoring their behaviour and assets conditions, and to enable new ways for value co-creation through the provision of data-driven services such as remote control and predictive maintenance.
These models (e.g., everything-as-a-service, rental, sharing, pay-per-x, reuse, \u2026) are therefore defining a new competitive paradigm for this sector, no longer based on the traditional product and service sales but on offering sustainable ‘product-service’ solutions in ‘as-a-service\u2019 and\/or \u201csharing\u201d models. Practice confirms that the biggest share of manufacturing firms is undergoing servitization however only a small share has completed its transition from a goods dominant \u201cproduct sales\u201d business model to a service-dominant \u201cas-a-service\u201d business model.
Moreover, the introduction of these servitized business models, where the use or the function of a product is sold instead of the product itself, has been acknowledged as a key enabling factor of the Circular Economy paradigm, as they can increase resource productivity, extend the lifecycle and facilitate end-of-life collection and recovery.
Although there has been considerable interest in the implementation of business models that involve smart product service offerings, recent studies have shown that their adoption is primarily limited to large-sized companies in the machinery sector. However, manufacturing firms that have adopted such models can realize various benefits, including the attainment of operational excellence in service provision, the creation of customer-centric offerings, and the transition to new value propositions.
Nevertheless, the development of these business models presents significant challenges, including the need to reconfigure organizational structures, human and financial resources, competencies and skills, risk management, partnerships, and ecosystems. Companies often face difficulties in addressing these challenges and adjusting their processes and offerings accordingly
Moreover, the economic and environmental impacts of adopting such a business model are unclear due to the unavailability of established assessment models and tools.
This project aims, therefore, to develop practitioner-oriented approaches and guidelines to support machinery companies in effective adopting these business models by supporting the development and assess of new advanced and sustainable product-service-systems offerings that can be delivered in \u201csharing\u201d and “pay-per-x” mode.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"parent":0,"template":"","class_list":["post-3149","projects","type-projects","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n